Simple play icon Course
Skills Expanded

Learning How to Program with Scratch

by Dr. Joe Hummel

Introduces computing and Computer Science to a younger audience using the Scratch programming environment.

What you'll learn

Welcome to Learning How to Program with Scratch. If you are interested in any of the following, then this course is for you:

  • Learning how to program your computer
  • Computer Science
  • The connections between computing, Computer Science, and Mathematics
  • Creating computer games
Using the Scratch programming environment, we show you how to start building interesting programs in just 15 minutes. And if you give us a few hours, we'll teach you the general skills and principles you need to be successful in just about every major programming language.

Scratch makes programming fun and intuitive, yet is extensible and powerful enough to support general computation. Learn Scratch, and you'll learn much more than just creating games!

Table of contents

How-to: Installing Scratch 1.4 on Windows
3mins
How-to: Installing Scratch 1.4 on Mac OS X
2mins
Always Start by Asking Why
31mins
Coordinate Systems
33mins
Selection
43mins
Repetition
32mins
Variables
51mins
Patterns
71mins

Course FAQ

What is Scratch coding?

Scratch is a programming language geared towards children and absolute beginners, introducing them to the world of coding. It teaches fundamental programming language features such as loops and conditionals (if-then statements) in a fun, educational, and easy to learn way.

Are there prerequisites to this course?

Absolutely not! This is square one as far as coding goes - an introduction to the world of programming with a fun and easy to learn programming environment. This course assumes no previous exposure to Scratch, or to programming in general.

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn how to program with Scratch. Some concepts in this course include:

  • General programming skills
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics
  • Game development
  • More
Who is this course for?

The Scratch programming environment is geared towards children primarily, but this course is for anyone who wants to learn the very basics of computer science and programming in a simplified environment.

Can I download Scratch?

Yes! The Scratch app is available to download on laptops and desktops on Windows and Mac devices.

About the author

Dr. Joe Hummel

Joe focuses on High Performance Computing and .NET languages. Joe has been specializing in Microsoft technologies since 1992, and is well-versed in Microsoft's High-Performance Computing initiative (HPC Server, Compute Cluster Server, MPI, MPI.NET, OpenMP, PFx), web technologies (ASP.NET and Ajax Extensions for ASP.NET), the desktop (WinForms), LINQ, .NET Framework, and its most popular languages (VC++, C#, F# and VB). Joe has co-authored two books on Windows development, hosted more than 60 MS... more

See more courses by Dr. Joe Hummel
Ready to upskill? Get started